Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency Should Eliminate Itself
DOGE’s actual goals are far less cutesy. Musk campaigned on the idea that he would use DOGE to personally enact sweeping structural changes to the executive branch through budget cuts, civil service purges, and more. Trump gave this project his blessing last week by naming Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, a right-wing businessman who ran in the 2024 GOP presidential primary earlier this year, to lead it.
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies—Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,” Trump wrote on social media. “I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans.”
There is one major problem for DOGE, however: It appears to be detached from reality. Much of what the group hopes to achieve would be impossible, impractical, illegal, or some combination thereof. It does not appear to be a serious attempt at overhauling the federal government, and it will most likely serve as a burden on and a distraction from more serious right-wing ambitions.